The latest Swedish crime series to hit BBC4 is based on a classic series of books

★★★½ BBC4, starts Saturday, 12 September, 9pm

BECK is the latest Scandi-noir series to fill BBC4’s Saturday-night slot. Since The Killing alerted the channel’s viewers to the distinctive mood and quality of Nordic TV dramas five years ago now, a new audience has been cultivated for death with subtitles in a cold climate.

Team work: Beck, Klingstrom, Larsson and Bergman

Martin Beck is, of course, the character featured in the groundbreaking Swedish crime novels written by husband-and-wife Marxists Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö back in the 1960s. These two crime-writing pioneers wrote a superb series of novels that often delved into society’s sore points, such as police corruption, while following Beck’s investigations.

The books are well worth exploring and this new series, set in the present day, is a polished adaptation, with Peter Haber – who starred in the Swedish version of The Girl with Dragon Tattoo – playing Beck. Mikael Persbrandt co-stars as Beck’s rough, tough colleague Larsson, a guy who, on taking out a biker in an alley fight, says, ‘Sometimes you have to make your mark.’

Beck’s on the trail of a serial killer

The first story, Buried Alive, starts with the discovery by a child of a crate buried in her playground’s sandpit. Her mother thinks she can hear a noise from inside and Beck and Larsson are soon on the scene. The crate contains the body of a prosecutor who’s been investigating a criminal biker gang. [Read more…]

Riveting Nordic crime drama is back with this atmospheric tale of child abduction and conspiracy.

★★★★ITV Encore, starts Wednesday, 10 June, 10pm

WHEN The Killing crept into BBC4’s schedules without fanfare in 2011 it famously became a word-of-mouth sensation, making a star of Sofie Gråbøl and igniting our near obsession with subtitled Nordic dramas.

The Bridge, Borgen, Arne Dahl have since become the stand-out successes from Northern Europe. Along the way, British viewers also fell in love with series such as Spiral and Inspector Montalbano from France and Italy.

But while Scandi devotees are stuck waiting for the next series of The Bridge (which will sadly be without Kim Bodnia, and is due late 2015/early 2016) and Arne Dahl (series 2: 2015), the new network ITV Encore has uncovered another quality thriller from Sweden.

Moa Gammel as detective Eva Thornblad

Jordskott immediately hits its stride as an engrossing drama with that quality of Nordic mystique. A vast ancient forest, a child’s disappearance, murky business dealings and a haunted blonde heroine – it’s the full smorgasbord.

Moa Gammel is police inspector Eva Thornblad, whose daughter disappeared by a lake, Silverhöjd, near her hometown seven years ago. When we meet Eva, she is confronting a deranged father, who shoots her.

During her convalescence, she has to return to her hometown to sort out her father’s estate. Conventional wisdom has it that her daughter, Josefine, drowned at the lake, and perhaps Eva has even made herself believe this.

Rating: ★★★½BBC4: starts Saturday, 30 August, 9pmStory:In Bergslagen in the 1950s, amateur sleuth Puck Ekstedt, her student boyfriend Einar Bure and their police superintendent friend Christer Wijk set out to solve a series of murders.

NORDIC NOIR in the shape of The Killing and The Bridge has really refreshed UK television, influencing brilliant recent series such as Broadchurch. The chilly settings and brooding, brilliantly acted dramas were a thrilling departure from much of the crime fare previously being produced here.

Which makes the arrival of this new six-part Swedish series a tiny bit disappointing. It’s a handsomely made drama. It’s just that it feels so familiar.

‘What the hell is this?’ says one character when a body is discovered. ‘It’s like Ten Little Indians.’

Agatha Christie with a Swedish twist

of stock characters in a period setting – an isolated island for the opener – someone is bumping them off one by one, an inspector calls and in a drawing-room denouement all is revealed.

It’s Marple, Father Brown and The Lady Vanishes, with Mad Men styling and subtitles.

Puck is writing a thesis on murder in modern novels, and she is invited by college academic Rutger to a midsummer party on his island, which has no phones and is only reachable by boat. The setting is the 1950s, and the fashions are lovingly recreated while the island is filmed beautifully.

Infidelity and betrayal

So, Crimes of Passion, which is based on the novels of Maria Lang from the late 1940s and 1950s,

Puck has been invited to a party, which turns into a murder spree

looks terrific. It’s the story that feels light and formulaic. Puck discovers one of the guests, Marianne, has been murdered in the woods. Her boyfriend Eje calls in his detective friend Christer. After some shenanigans with the body going missing, it becomes clear the guests are a dissolute lot with a tendency towards infidelity and betrayal.

Misdirection is the cliche of whodunit and the characters who are absolute stinkers and look bang to rights are, inevitably, not the culprit. It’s the same here, with a lot of dull questioning, much running about the island and furtive comings and goings, before a second guest is shot in the woods (strange that no one hears the gun being fired).

For non-fans of the whodunit, the genre is just a puzzle with stock characters. Is the killer flirty Lil, shifty Rutger or annoying Carl? The acting is OK, the victims are plot devices and the set-ups contrived.

Beautifully made whodunit

Looking for clues – Christer

But it would be a surprise if Crimes of Passion does not find an audience for its stunning setting, lovely costumes and the traditional format.

Others will undoubtedly miss the emotional pull and the chilly strangeness of the worlds of Sarah Lund and Saga Noren.

Rating: ★★★½BBC4: starts Saturday, 6 April (to be confirmed)Story:A special police unit is set up after three businessmen are murdered on consecutive nights. Detective Jenny Hultin leads the so-called A Unit to investigate the killings while the financial world panics.

BBC4’s Nordic invasion of Saturday nights shows no signs of abating as this latest thriller, from Sweden this time, arrives. Where The Killing gave us the iconic Sarah Lund and The Bridge had the odd couple of Saga Noren and Martin Rohde, Arne Dahl is an action-driven ensemble piece.

A crack squad of six detectives is recruited by senior officer Jenny Hultin to investigate a series of shootings of leading businessmen. The magnificent six is an amalgam of talents, including legal whiz Aarto, strongman Gunnar, computer hound Jorge and action man Paul, whose dominates the opener, The Blinded Man.

We meet him as he goes all Clint Eastwood during a hostage situation, when he shoots a man fighting extradition. He’s rescued by Jenny Hultin from an Internal Affairs investigation and brings his obsessive, marriage-jeopardising intensity to catching the Fat Cat Killer.

Viggo in trouble with the mob

Estonian mafiaWorking round the clock the ‘A Unit’ run into the mafia in Estonia and try to work out how a Russian bank robber’s murder by a dart to the eye, of all things, may tie in. One of the team, the usually desk-bound Viggo, ends up having a very nasty encounter with the mobsters in Tallinn. And there is the conundrum of a Theolonius Monk CD, Mysterioso, left playing when the assassin is interrupted during the murder of his fifth victim.

The Blinded Man, a one of a series of dramas based on novels by Swedish novelist Arne Dahl (the pen name of writer/critic Jan Arnald). It unfolds in two 90-minute films, leaving plenty of scope to flesh the odd bunch of detectives.

There’s nose-picking Viggo, former steroid abuser Gunnar, and the oddball father of five Aarto, who calls his children by number rather than name because it’s ‘rational’. Paul does not like Jorge, and ace interrogator Kerstin finds time for a fling with another member of the Unit.

Bit corny at the end

Paul and Kerstin get ready to move in

In the best tradition of all those Dirty Dozen-type actioners, even our own New Tricks, part of the fun is watching this bunch of rough diamonds bonding once the heat is on. It all gets a bit corny by the end as detectives who were staring daggers at each other one minute, abruptly find themselves moving into man-crush territory before the end credits.

Just as the novels of Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson have ushered in a flood of less-than-brilliant Nordic crime novels, so The Killing has created a rush for the more stoic detectives from the frozen north.

That’s not to say Arne Dahl is not a good Saturday night crime bash. But it has none of brooding depth and deep characterisation of The Killing, or the freshness of The Bridge.

The third series of Kenneth Branagh’s Wallander is back on BBC1 on Sunday, 8 July. The first of three investigations based on the stories of Swedish author Henning Mankell, An Event in Autumn, will get the season rolling. Kurt is seeking a new life in the countryside, only to find a corpse buried at the back of his garden… No wonder he’s always a bit glum. CrimeTimePreview will have a full preview of the opener tomorrow. In the meantime, who is the best Wallander ever? Comments below, please…

Welcome to CrimeTimePreview‘s series of interviews with authors about their TV and reading habits.

• PETER ROBINSON is the author of the Inspector Banks novels – the fourth series of which has just started on ITV (see the post below). A multi-award-winning novelist, he was born in Yorkshire and now divides his time between Toronto and Richmond, North Yorkshire. We brought him in for questioning, and here he makes a full and frank confession of his criminal viewing and reading habits…

• ADRIAN McKINTY is one of the most acclaimed new crime writers from across the Irish Sea, routinely mentioned alongside Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and John Connolly. His series of edgy thrillers about Catholic detective Sean Duffy and the character’s exploits while working in the none-too-comfortable surroundings of the RUC during the Troubles, and later MI5, are developing a big following and have been hugely praised by reviewers. These include The Cold Cold Ground, In the Morning I’ll Be Gone and Gun Street Girl. Here, he reveals his favourite TV shows, characters and authors…

• WE’VE dragged one of Britain’s major crime practitioners in for questioning. Multi-award-winning IAN RANKIN is the creator of Edinburgh detective inspector John Rebus, the tenacious but chippy hero of bestsellers such as Black and Blue, Fleshmarket Close and Resurrection Men. The character was turned into a series by STV with first John Hannah and then Ken Stott portraying him. ITV filmed Rankin’s standalone novel Doors Open in 2012. After retiring Rebus in Exit Music, he introduced his readers to Malcolm Fox in The Complaints, before bringing Rebus back in 2012’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave.

• Manchester-based crime writer CATH STAINCLIFFE is interrogated below for evidence of her TV viewing and reading activities. She writes the novels based on the Scott & Bailey series, which stars Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones and is soon to return to ITV – with her latest book about the female detectives being Bleed Like Me. Cath is also the author of the Sal Kilkenny private eye stories and creator and scriptwriter of Blue Murder, which was on ITV and starred Caroline Quentin.

• Hauled in for questioning is British crime writer and Guardian reviewer LAURA WILSON, who is currently working on her 10th novel. Laura, whose books include the DI Stratton series among other mysteries set in the recent past, talks about her TV and reading habits, from Cagney & Lacey to Agatha Christie…

• ZOE SHARP wrote her first novel when she was 15. It was not until 2001, however, after she had tried her hand at jobs ranging from van driver to newspaper ad sales to motoring correspondent, that she finally publisher her breakout Charlie Fox novel Killer Instinct. Fox, the self-defence instructor with a shady military background, has proved hugely popular with readers through nine novels and has been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox TV. We brought Zoë in for questioning to see who she would like to see playing Charlie on screen, and what TV shows tick the right boxes for her…

• CrimeTimePreview apprehended SIMON KERNICK, one of Britain’s most exciting thriller writers to grill him about his viewing proclivities. He arrived on the crime scene with his acclaimed novel The Business of Dying, a terrific story about a corrupt cop who moonlights as a hitman. His authentic thrillers are basedon research with members of Special Branch, the Anti-Terrorist Branch and the Organised Crime Agency. He has just finished writing his latest book, which will be called Siege.

• SOPHIE HANNAH, whose novel The Point of Rescue was recently turned into the drama Case Sensitive by ITV1, is the author of internationally bestselling psychological thrillers – Little Face, Hurting Distance, The Other Half Lives and A Room Swept White. CrimeTimePreview recently brought her in to be questioned about her addiction to Class A plotting on television…

• Scottish author TONY BLACK, creator of Gus Dury in stories such as Gutted and Long Time Dead.

• Belfast crime writer SAM MILLAR, author of books such as The Redemption and the award-winning memoir On the Brinks.

• Crime novelist PAULINE ROWSON, author of the Marine series of mysteries, is pulled into CrimeTimePreview headquarters for questioning.

• Award-winning British novelist ANN CLEEVES is a serial crime writer, with her collections including amateur sleuths George & Molly, Inspector Ramsay, the soon-to-be-televised Vera Stanhope and the recent Shetland Island Quartet (now a BBC1 series with Douglas Henshall). CrimeTimePreview pulls her in for questioning about her TV habits…

• We brought thriller writer MATT HILTON into headquarters for questioning about his TV and reading activities.

• ALINE TEMPLETON is the author of the series of novels about DI Marjory Fleming, set in Scotland. Her stand-alone mysteries include Past Praying For, The Trumpet Shall Sound and Shades of Death. She lives in Edinburgh. She was brought into CrimeTimePreview HQ for questioning about her TV viewing habits…

• Award-winning crime author STEPHEN BOOTH has written 11 mysteries involving the detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry with a distinctive, sometimes menacing Peak District setting. He was a newspaper and magazine journalist for 25 years before publishing the first Cooper/Fry novel, Black Dog, in 2000. CrimeTimePreview quizzed him about his criminal viewing activities…